Breed opens up about cancer journey to raise money for Hooves4Hospice

“There is no hospice in the Midlands and that really is something that needs to be addressed,” states Breed Hassett, a teacher of science and agricultural science in Banagher College.

Breed is promoting her and her colleagues' Hooves 4 Hospice campaign, which has so far surpassed its target of €2,000 on iDonate.ie.

However, Breed believes they can “double, or even triple” that amount as “cancer touches everyone at some stage of their lives”.

Originally from Cork but living in Offaly since 1998, Breed married Kinnitty man Liam O’Brien, and says she loves the Offaly people who have taken her under her wing since she first arrived in the Faithful County.

Together Breed and Liam have two children, James who is 11, and Sarah who just turned 5, but family life was thrown into disarray last year when Breed was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“It was right in the middle of Covid and the next thing was I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had to have surgery during the summer, followed by chemo and radiation. My husband wasn’t allowed in, I went through chemo on my own and nobody was allowed sit with me. Liam had to stay in the car park.

“I was treated in St James and I’m still with them and I can't say enough about them, they were fantastic, but getting the news was a huge shock because I didn’t have the normal symptoms that someone with breast cancer usually has.

“I didn’t have a lump, I had what looked like a cut on my nipple that wasn’t healing.

“All along the doctors didn’t think that it was anything, they thought it was a skin rash or irritation - something like that. I had had a mammogram the previous August and nothing sinister showed up.”

When Breed’s wound didn’t heal however she went back to the doctor, and following a biopsy, doctors discovered that there was in fact cancer present.

“It was a huge shock because my own mother died of cancer when she was 41, I’m 44. In that day and age, by the time it was discovered it was everywhere so they didn’t actually know her primary source of cancer. So it was always in the back of my mind.”

At the same time, two of Breed’s friends had also been diagnosed with breast cancer not long before her own diagnosis.

“That initial word ‘cancer’ comes as a desperate shock, waiting to see what stage it’s at, waiting for the prognosis.

“To be honest I had myself dead and buried because of my own trauma of losing my mother.

“I was so fearful for my children, for my husband, I was worried about it all and you’re trying to put a brave face on and be as upbeat as possible.

“My family are in Cork and I was talking to them on the phone, nobody could travel. They were asking me questions, questions that you don’t have answers for. It was very, very tough.”

The other side

Breed who is still receiving injections for the cancer is due to finish her treatment in August.

“My thinking now is that I am blessed, that I am lucky that I followed it up with a doctor that listened. I’m hopeful that I’m out the other end but I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch. However, things are looking very positive for me.

“It definitely makes you stop and look at your priorities, you look at things in a more simple light. I want to be here for the kids and see them grow up.

“I’m hoping that by reading this people won’t be afraid to go to their doctor, and not to be afraid to query and question when something isn’t right.

“Initially, when doctors told me it was a skin irritation, I was putting on this cream and that cream, and three, four, five weeks had passed and it wasn’t getting any better. I didn’t want to be going back and bothering the doctor. Stupidly we don’t want to be annoying the doctor and it got to the stage where it was bleeding and oozing all the time.

“We’re very silly that way but I’m glad that I did go back and that I did push it further and found it on time.”

Blessed

“I’m blessed with the colleagues that I work with, everyone rallied around me. Offaly is my home now and once the word got out the messages and cards came flying in and it gives you a huge lift. Everything like that boosts you.”

It was one of Breed’s colleagues who approached her in October last year about an idea called #MilesforMissH

“They wanted to do some fundraising during the TY year because everything was disrupted and they wanted a purpose. They wanted to do something for cancer and use me as a poster girl so to speak.

“Some people are very private about these things but I’m not - I’m a teacher and I believe in education. I felt that even if just one other person decided to go to the doctor as a result of hearing my story, then that’s a win.

“So the transition years in Banagher College and anyone who wanted to get involved planned to collectively clock up the miles that I was going to be travelling from Kinnitty to St James and back for my twelve rounds of chemo, and they would walk these miles.”

The initiative ended up raising €14,500 for Breast Cancer research.

“I was absolutely floored by the response,” says Breed. “There were past pupils on Facebook, Twitter etc, who were living abroad in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Spain, also clocking up the miles, and people were donating.

“There was real community spirit, people in Kinnitty here got behind me and were walking as well and in Banagher, it was amazing.”

Hooves 4Hospice

Fast forward another five months and family friend Martin Finnerty donated a calf for fundraising.

“I got back onto my colleagues and this time we decided to do it for Hospice. With the help of God I’ll never need it but there are people who will. We’ve had lots of past and present pupils who have lost parents through cancer and I think cancer touches everybody at some stage in their lives.

“I had come across the Hooves4Hospice campaign, which is local farmers raising cattle to fundraise for a hospice because there is no hospice in the Midlands.

“My colleagues set up the iDonate and we went about getting prizes - there’s ten different prizes.

“First prize is the calf or the value of the calf, which is €300.

“There’s lots of prizes there, including a voucher for the Radisson and we’re currently promoting that draw which will take place in May.

“It’s €5 a ticket and we’re hoping to reach as much as we can. We want to raise awareness of the fact that there is no hospice in the Midlands.”

Community spirit

Breed believes that with the strong community spirit that exists in Offaly, they can raise much more for the calf raffle the idonate.ie forum.

“I moved up to Offaly in 1998 for a job, and I fell in love with the people. I had never been to the Midlands, when you’re from Cork you go left to Galway or right to Dublin.

“I’ve always just felt, my whole teaching career has been in Banagher and I love the kids, there is a great community spirit in Offaly and I really think if the word gets out there we can raise more.”

To donate, go to the Banagher College website where there is a link to the idonate.ie page.